All the verdicts of the penultimate day in the sprint to the richest Europe: Spalletti almost out while Milan and Gasperini can dream. And for Conte comes the certainty of qualification.
Ninety minutes of pure tension which produced a sensational turnaround in the Champions League area. The high noon of Italian football was worth the price of the ticket and with one day left of the championship it produced some verdicts, not all definitive, which mark the present and future of the teams involved.
The only certainty written in stone is that Napoli will play in the next Champions League. There weren’t many doubts, as Conte simply had to finish the job at home in relegated Pisa, but the process was completed by the Neapolitans (0-3) without any tremors and, therefore, from here on De Laurentiis will be able to concentrate on the sporting project for next season.
The other verdicts are not definitive, but for the ranking to be rewritten in a week’s time, unpredictable things need to happen. In extreme summary: iMilan rose again in the darkest moment, Roma are happy because they dominated the derby and joined the quartet for Europe that counts, Juventus is experiencing a real sporting drama.
The Bianconeri are out of the Champions League with one matchday to go, guilty of throwing everything away first against Verona and then letting themselves be beaten by Fiorentina (0-2) in front of their own rightly angry people. A sporting and economic disaster. The championship will end with a derby at the home of Torino in which Juventus only has to win, hoping that a favorable combination of results will come from San Siro and Verona: very difficult.
The one who never dies is Max Allegri. At the end of the week of poisons and score-settling, leading a team that no longer showed signs of life, the coach from Livorno built a masterpiece of cynicism and practicality at Marassi (1-2). The goals of Nkunku and Athekame are a pass to the Champions League and also a way to reiterate Allegri’s extraordinary ability to bring his boats to port even in the midst of stormy seas. The closure at San Siro against Cagliari was a psychological trap rather than a technical one, but the Rossoneri are masters of their own destiny.
The derby at the Olimpico, however, completed the comeback of Roma who just a month ago seemed doomed, cut off from everything after throwing away three-quarters of the season’s work. Lazio made the impression of a sparring partner, they surrendered to two headbutts from Mancini and ended a season that began without any visions or hopes very badly.
Gasperini does not depend on anyone else’s results and it is enough for him to win in Verona, on the pitch of an already relegated team, to give the Friedkins what they have been chasing since 2019, namely the return to the Champions League. The fourth place share has risen so much that it almost certainly cuts out Fabregas’ Como, through which the train had passed in recent weeks. An extraordinary qualification for the Europa League remains, the success against Parma serves to keep a small door open to the dream.
